Kawei fully understood all of Rurik's explanations of the entire iron smelting principle based on atoms, and so far he has no doubts about these explanations.
Is there anything else we can doubt? Is there any more reliable explanation than this?
Even his father, Klavasen, who was also a blacksmith teacher, never told him these profound things.
Before tonight, Kawei simply thought that burning charcoal and stone would turn into iron by knocking on the reddish thing left. Why is this happening? It's probably Thor's miracle, or
It's a miracle from Odin.
After listening to Rurik's explanation, I'm afraid there are still miracles here, but these miracles can be controlled by others.
The saying passed down from our ancestors is that Odin created humans in his own image. In this case, perhaps humans were tacitly approved by Odin from the beginning and could obtain and use some miracles.
He even asked by analogy: "What if we calcined not fifty times, but a hundred times? Wouldn't it be harder?"
"No!" Rurik denied bluntly, "A sword will become very fragile if it absorbs too much carbon. A pure iron sword will bend easily, and an iron sword that absorbs too much carbon will be particularly easy to break. We must use iron
This characteristic makes the best weapons possible.
The entire sword needs to absorb a certain amount of carbon. Because it has two characteristics, my sword actually has a certain degree of elasticity. Kawei, please help me try it."
"I?"
"Yes." Rurik continued; "You don't have to worry about anything if you hold the hilt of the sword and press it hard. I can predict that it will not break or deform. It will break like a branch because of your strength.
It bends, and then returns to its original shape due to your force."
"Okay! I'll try."
I saw Kawei holding the sword at an acute angle with one hand, and he began to use his strength. Under Rurik's gaze, the blade of the sword really bent. But looking at Kawei's ferocious expression, this young strong man also used
exerted great strength.
Kawei let go and saw the once-bent sword bounce back to its original shape instantly, and was really shocked by the force of the rebound.
"Wow! You really hit the mark." Kawei said excitedly.
And Klavasen was even more excited, because this little experiment was an accurate proof of what Rurik had just said.
Klavasen said sincerely: "Rurik, I am very clear about the iron swords I made in the past. As long as you press it with great force, the sword body will bend in place. If you want to restore it to its original shape, it must be heated red.
Get it back to its original state from the new blacksmithing platform! This sword of yours... you have allowed me to see miracles."
"Haha? Is this a miracle? You made it yourself, is it considered a miracle?" Rurik shook his head, "I have already told you that the entire human world is composed of the smallest indivisible things.
It’s the smallest atom. Atoms form new things in different ways, and further form everything we see.”
Rurik paused for breath: "I answered Kawei's question accurately. What will happen if you continue to calcine and forge the iron sword? It absorbs too much carbon. After reaching a certain level, Kawei continues to press the sword, and the sword can directly
Broken. Even during forging, the sword embryo broke directly.
As blacksmiths, you now have to learn a brand new skill, which is to control the amount of carbon absorbed by the iron sword. This all depends on your own feeling.
I ask you to judge a good sword from now on. It must be able to cut through an ordinary iron sword and be able to bend it and return to its original shape. These two principles are the most important."
The two blacksmiths nodded deeply, and at the same time a strong sense of excitement affected their bodies, causing their feet to sweat and their whole bodies to tremble with excitement.
By now, Rurik believed that the two blacksmiths had understood the atomic theory he was talking about and the principles of making a steel sword.
Of course, Rurik's so-called "atomism" itself has a lot of loopholes.
The earliest "atomism" was born in Greece in the fifth century BC. Many philosophers discussed the composition of the world. A theory that the world is composed of the smallest indivisible objects was also born in countless discussions and was adopted.
Organized into a classical theory. I am afraid this theory can only be regarded as an enlightenment. They even think that flame is also a kind of atom, which is the so-called "phlogiston" concept.
The concept of phlogiston, which originated from classical atomism, has been circulating in human society for more than two thousand years. It was not until the 19th century that the phenomenon of combustion received a clear scientific explanation.
Rurik's so-called atomic theory was purely to take into account the blacksmith's understanding, making it more like "ancient Greek atomism." He also directly applied the results of modern atomic theory, where the actual meaning of atom is equivalent to a proton.
Because of the special nature of their work, blacksmiths know more about "natural philosophy" than ordinary tribesmen. In order to get useful copper and iron out of the ore, they have to figure out the composition of the ore.
It is very interesting that in order to get more gold, some ancient Greeks began to invent and tinker with alchemy. After all, the color of bronze seems to be just a little darker than gold. If some metals are added to make its color closer to real gold,
And if you confuse the fake with the real thing, it's really a huge profit.
With the destruction of Western Rome, the entire Western Europe entered a state of chaos. It took hundreds of years for the German chiefs to re-establish a new order under the authority of the Franks.
The large-scale iron smelting factories of the Roman era disappeared, and science and technology disappeared with them. The civilization of the Western European world regressed, and a large number of Germanic blacksmiths only knew how to make iron by burning the ore red and pounding it into lumps. Many barbarian blacksmiths even
There was no time to find the quenching technology from the Roman ruins.
Because of the lack of a teacher, most iron swords in Western Europe hope to improve the quality of their products, but there is no theoretical basis to support their desire.
Coupled with the widespread poverty of ordinary people of Germanic descent in Western Europe in this time and space, there are not many professional blacksmiths, and most of the iron swords are part-time farmers. Iron smelting and blacksmithing are extremely strenuous physical labor, and blacksmiths must eat more bread.
Only then can they have the strength to forge iron. The poor civilians are half-starved and half-fed. They have no financial resources to hire blacksmiths to make good tools, and they have never thought of these things.
What maintained the foundation of the Frankish Empire was a large number of homesteaders.
Many of these yeoman farmers were still in the late stages of tribal society. The ancient Germanic tribal system was destroyed by the conquest and rise of the Franks, and the emerging small peasant class had to break away from the tribes that no longer existed.
They had to use wooden plows or even their hands to cultivate wasteland to grow food, and they used wood to make tools to build houses. The Frankish nobles were their managers, and they also had to collect certain taxes. The poor yeoman farmers accumulated their wealth with difficulty.
Those bankrupt yeoman farmers would naturally become serfs of the nobility.
Craftsmen such as blacksmiths are more likely to become slaves of nobles. However, nobles prefer blacksmiths to serfs who farm.
The nobles must have a powerful army of their own, and the only things that can make the army strong are iron and bronze. The ancestors of the so-called Frankish nobles are German chiefs, and the ancestors of the yeoman farmers are just ordinary residents of each tribe.
, they had a distinction between noble and humble from the beginning. When Frank adopted the enfeoffment system in an all-round way, this distinction between noble and humble was further sanctified due to the church.
The nobles needed blacksmiths to make iron, and they had to take a blacksmith with them when they went on an expedition, so that they could repair weapons made of wrought iron that were easily bent and broken at any time, and they believed that all weapons were like this.
Blacksmiths originated from farmers who lacked or had little land. They inherited this laborious job from generation to generation. They greatly needed the support of the nobles. After all, the nobles were their biggest financial backers.
Especially in the current time and space, the residents of Norway and Denmark, acting as Viking pirates, began to plunder the British region and the Frankish Empire on a large scale. The nobles need the taxes from the civilians to survive, so in order to survive, they must organize an army to
Counterattack all Vikings.
Wars began to become more frequent, and the nobles needed blacksmiths even more.
The blacksmiths in Western Europe in the ninth century did not understand atomism, nor did they understand alchemy at all. It was even less possible for them to acquire the ancient steel-making techniques from the East that had been perfected in the classical period.
According to the normal historical trend, the invasion of the Mongolian army brought a lot of things.
The introduction of some steel-making skills from distant China and the return of steel-making techniques that continued to spread from the Middle East made Europe finally able to make low-carbon steel. The returning alchemists would rather risk being burned to death as wizards.
Some crazy experiments to create gold out of nothing.
The historical development line finally began to undergo a small deviation in 828 AD.
In the beginning, this was a minor deviation.
However, when the blacksmiths of the Ross tribe fully understood the core principle of making carbon steel from a block, many things would become different.
Because of Rurik, he is not just a little angel who provides steel-making skills. For him, asking the blacksmith to make steel swords is not just for a little wealth. The blacksmith has already made an impact on the world based on the "Rurik-style atomic theory" he developed.
A whole new understanding.
Although Rurik still claims that Odin created the world, how Odin created the world is no longer something indescribable and incomprehensible.
Carbon steel has elasticity, which did not exist in metal weapons used as weapons in Western Europe in the past.
Since it has good resilience, it can be made into better weapons, such as crossbows.
When Rurik saw Kawei struggling to bend his dagger, he immediately thought of the possibility of a steel-arm crossbow.
At the end of the Middle Ages, the most famous thing in Genoa was the steel-arm crossbow made of steel sheets. Its power was that it could shoot heavy arrows through the armor of plate-armored knights at a certain distance.
Although the steel-arm crossbow has its own shortcomings, it was made in the 15th to 16th centuries, an era when matchlocks were just starting out. It is another weapon that can effectively attack heavily armored units.
When it comes to weapons, in a country with frequent wars, all parties will generally choose the most cost-effective equipment. The monarch does not require weapons to be fancy, they must be able to achieve the result of defeating the enemy with his own army at a low cost.
The climate in Europe is generally humid, and the advanced technology of sinew-angle composite bows is prone to embarrassment in humid environments, which forces Europe to use single-piece straight wooden bows.
However, in the ninth century AD, the use of bows was not common in wars throughout Western Europe, let alone such high technology as crossbows.
As for the Nordic world, the Vikings, who are called barbaric by Western Europe, do not even use bows. Of course they also have throwing weapons, which are spears.
Humans have been making spears and using them as throwing weapons for tens of thousands of years. Every human being in the world has this valuable innate ability. The Romans took throwing javelins and spears to the extreme.
Does the Ross tribe need to develop long-range weapons? Of course they do.
Rurik regrets that he is still too weak. He always has countless ideas and far-reaching plans in his mind. He is also aware of the reason why his hips may be strained by taking too many steps.
He is the kind of person with a calm temperament unique to the East. Even if he longs for the Ross tribe that he will take power to have stronger technology, he cannot achieve it overnight.
Rome was not built in a day. Every stone slab on the stone road leading to Rome was spliced piece by piece by workers.
One thing that Rurik fears most is that as he grows older, he accidentally forgets some of the most basic and important knowledge.
The night is already very deep, and in a few days it will be Hanukkah, the biggest festival of the Ross tribe. All tribesmen will have a carnival to welcome the "longest night".
After the new Hanukkah, the tribe must have a new beginning, Rurik deeply believed so.
Now, Klavathon and Kawei already know a lot of so-called "knowledge of Odin".
Rurik looked at the two blacksmiths who looked satisfied and full of confidence in the future, and said profoundly: "Odin acquired knowledge at the cost of one eye, then turned the giant's corpse into countless atoms, and used the knowledge to create us from the atoms.
The human world. We are all Odin's creations, so we can also understand some of Odin's wisdom. Now you have made your own new swords."
"Yes!" Klavashon said excitedly: "My son and I will become very rich for this. I have decided that before Kavey goes to Novgorod with the leader, I must build a
The steel sword (stelsvard) serves as Kawei’s sword.”
"Dad, I will make it myself so you don't have to worry about it," Kawei said confidently.
"You? You'd better go to Novgorod to find an excellent woman and give me more boys. Since our family has received Odin's wisdom from the next leader, we must carry it forward."
"I know how to do it. At worst, I can grab one back."
Hearing their banter and bickering, Rurik couldn't smile anymore. Robbery is also a traditional skill of all Viking Nordics. This kind of behavior is not a good thing. Not only because robbery is a kind of skill
From a purely rational point of view, it is more cost-effective to increase the efficiency of the group's production of materials than to rob. Selling high value-added materials is the traditional way to make a fortune. The Viking business aristocratic group will also use this method to make a fortune.
This birth.
This night, Kawei and Klavasen made it clear that they would develop the technology of "Hundred Steelmaking" and would fulfill their contract with absolute honesty.
But Rurik didn't want it to end so simply.
Tired, he asked Kawei: "Bring me another board."
"What's wrong?"
"I want to carve something about what Odin created using atoms. I will carve it on the wooden board for you to learn from."